Badge

Hack Canada Badge — v2 (RP2040 + E-Paper)

This was the first serious attempt at the Hack Canada badge before the design was later simplified into the battery-free NFC badges of v3 and v4.

The main render shows all 51 components placed at their real board positions with the 2.13" e-paper panel mounted on top. Renders are generated from this version's Gerber files (pcb/prod/gerber/); colours and the on-screen layout are illustrative.

What it is

Where the later revisions stripped everything down to a passive NFC tag, v2 aimed high: a programmable badge with a screen you could actually put graphics and text on. It's essentially a tiny RP2040 development board in badge form, with an e-paper panel, USB-C for power and programming, and external flash for firmware and assets.

How it works

USB-C ──► RP2040 ──► SPI ──► 2.13" e-paper display (GDEY0213F51)
            │
            ├──► QSPI ──► W25Q32 flash (firmware + images)
            ├──► 12 MHz crystal
            ├──► BOOT + RESET buttons, SWD header
            └──► status LED

Plug it in over USB-C, flash firmware to the RP2040 (BOOTSEL/UF2 or SWD), and drive the e-paper display to show a name, schedule, or artwork. The display holds its image with no power, which suits a badge that spends most of its life idle.

Core components

Board

Front	Back

Assembled (parts placed)

The e-paper panel (shown mounted in the main image at the top) connects over the FPC ribbon connector at the upper-left and sits above the board across the open top area, with the RP2040 and power circuitry tucked below it. The on-screen layout in that render is a placeholder mock-up, not artwork from the repo.

Repository layout (v2 branch)

pcb/
├── badge.kicad_pcb / .kicad_sch / .kicad_pro   # main design
├── prod/gerber/                                # Gerbers, drills, gbrjob — ready to fab
├── badge-backups/                              # KiCad auto-backups
├── <component>/                                # per-part symbol/footprint/3D libraries
│   (RP2040, W25Q32, GDEY0213F51, crystal, LEDs, TVS, caps …)
└── assets/                                     # logos
GDEY0213F51.kicad_sym                           # e-paper display symbol
README.md

Building your own

1. Fabricate: send pcb/prod/gerber/ (or badge-gerbers-and-designs.zip) to your board house. It's a 2-layer, 1.6 mm board.
2. Edit: open pcb/badge.kicad_pro in KiCad 8 to modify the layout or schematic.
3. Assemble & flash: populate the parts, power over USB-C, and load RP2040 firmware via UF2 (BOOTSEL) or the SWD header. Then drive the GDEY0213F51 over SPI.

History

v2 → v3 (pivot to a battery-free NFC badge, adopted from the open "Opentaxus" design) → v4 (streamlined 4-part NFC badge). See the v3 and v4 branches / READMEs.

License

No license file is included, so all rights are reserved by default. Contact @a3l6 to discuss reuse.